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ventures made during the following decade proved more
successful, thanks to the skill and experience of the
well-known Arctic explorer, Captain Wiggins, who conducted
most of the commercial expeditions to the mouth of the
Yenisei up to 1896. Nearly all of the 22 steamers which
sailed for the river during that period reached their destination.
During the summers of 1896 and 1897 the condition of
the ice in the Kara Sea was very favorable, and the six
steamers which sailed in the former year encountered no ice.
In 1898 only one steamer reached the mouth of the Yenisei,
and the mercantile fleet of five steamers which started from
London for the river in 1899, had to return on account of
the ice, and lost one steamer.
There is no doubt that the difficulties in the way of
maritime communication with northern Siberia could be
overcome by modern methods, and a fairly regular trade
established between the great Siberian rivers and Europe.
But at the same time nothing has been done to overcome
these difficulties. There are as yet no correct charts of
the sea-coast between the White Sea and the Yenisei,
and there are but few soundings; there are no proper
sailing directions, no depôts or stations of refuge along
the shores, no meteorological stations at the mouths of
the rivers, or at the southern point of Novaya Zemlia, and
no telegraphic communication with the last-named places.
If these elementary measures were taken for observing and
reporting on the conditions of the ice, etc., and for security
in navigation and salvage in case of accidents, there is no
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